1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), and more particularly, to voltage-controlled oscillators that consume relatively less power than in the prior art.
2. Related Art
A typical voltage-controlled oscillator can comprise a plurality of delay stages electrically coupled together in series and in a loop. More specifically, the first delay stage generates output signal(s) to the second delay stage. The second delay stage generates output signal(s) to the third delay stage, and so on. Finally, the last delay stage generates output signal(s) back to the first delay stage forming the loop. An output node of any delay stage can be used as the output node of the voltage-controlled oscillator. There is always a need for new designs of voltage-controlled oscillators which have lower power consumption.
In other words, there is a need for novel voltage-controlled oscillators that consume relatively less power than those of the prior art. There is also a need for a method for operating the novel voltage-controlled oscillators.